Free-Falling

by Nicola Moriarty

  ‘Umm, yeah, I sort of am – but not cause of him.’

  His mouth dropped open. ‘Shit, you’re in labour, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yep, seems like it.’

  ‘All right, that’s okay, we can deal with this. We’ll call the police and I’ll take this guy to your neighbours across the hall. They can babysit him until the cops get here. Actually, I just remembered, the guy down in 22C is a cop. I’ll grab him instead. And then I’ll get you to the hospital. Do you know how far along you are?’

  She was stopped from answering as the intruder spoke up again. ‘Belinda!’ he groaned. ‘It’s me!’

  She gasped. Was this some sort of stalker? He knew her name! ‘Shanks!’ he exclaimed with a bit of a cough.

  ‘You’re welcome, mate,’ replied Bazza, still holding him firmly against the floor.

  But Belinda had heard him and, realising her terrible mistake, she stood up, careful to keep her towel around her. She turned on the light so she could see him properly. ‘Shanks! What the hell are you doing here?’

  ‘Stacey made me. It was my shift to check on you,’ he replied, his voice still muffled by the floor.

  ‘It’s okay, you can let him go. I know him,’ she said hurriedly, realising Shanks was still being pressed into the floor by her rescuer.

  ‘Are you sure?’ he asked doubtfully as he loosened his grip and allowed Shanks to roll over and sit up. Shanks rubbed his jaw, wincing painfully. ‘All right, mate, even if you do know her, what the hell are you doing in her apartment at three in the morning? Explain. Fast.’

  Shanks gave him a look that clearly said, ‘Who the hell are you, mate?’ but then turned to Belinda and started explaining. ‘After you phoned Stacey, she made me come over and check on you – apparently she could “sense” that something wasn’t right. When I got here, I knocked, but I guess you couldn’t hear me over the music you had playing. I called Stacey to tell her everything was fine and you were obviously just chilling, listening to your Angus and Julia Stone CD. That’s when she went mental, saying that it was your “labour CD” – whatever that means – and telling me I had to get inside urgently and take you to the hospital. I tried knocking again, but still no answer. Look, I didn’t want to break in, but she told me if I didn’t find a way in I’d never get any from her again, so I really had no choice. Although the way you kneed my balls, I’m not sure I’ll be getting any ever again anyway. Man, I always knew Andy had a feisty one – but shit, I can’t say I expected that from you.’ He paused to look back at his captor, adding, ‘So who the hell are you, then?’

  ‘Oh, right. Name’s Bazza. And you know what, mate? I reckon you’re gonna live. She’s the one we have to get to the hospital,’ he added, turning concerned eyes to Belinda.

  ‘Well, I can’t drive – she stomped on my foot and nearly fucken broke it.’ Shanks reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. ‘Here, you take her to the hospital. You can take my Rex. I’m gonna stay here and have a drink. You better have some bourbon in your liquor cabinet, baby.’ Shanks crawled over to the couch and heaved himself up onto it. ‘Have fun, guys,’ he said, waving dismissively at them.

  Bazza shook his head at him and then turned his attention to Belinda. ‘All right, you look to me as though those contractions are starting to come on pretty fast, so I think we’d better hurry. Will you be okay to get dressed?’

  Belinda stared at him in awe. She barely knew this guy, yet here he was, rushing to her rescue in the middle of the night; and now he was getting ready to take her to the hospital without a moment’s hesitation.

  ‘Umm, yep, I’ll be fine,’ she said, heading to the bedroom in a bit of a daze. The adrenalin was starting to subside and she now wondered why she hadn’t stopped to consider the possibility of it being someone she actually knew walking into her apartment.

  ‘Is there somebody I should call for you?’ Bazza yelled out after her. ‘You know, like a birthing partner or maybe a . . . a boyfriend or something?’ His voice dropped a little on the last few words, as though he was trying to sound nonchalant about it.

  ‘Umm, right, I guess we should phone Stacey – she’s going to be there with me for the birth,’ Belinda called back as she stepped into her pants and pulled on a top.

  ‘No need,’ Shanks said from the couch. He checked his watch then added, ‘I’d say she’ll be just pulling up to the hospital right now, and my phone will be ringing in about two minutes with her yelling at me for not having you there yet.’ Shanks carefully took his mobile out of his pocket, flipped it open and then pressed the power button. ‘Aaand . . . phone goes off,’ he announced, sounding quite pleased with his own ingenuity.

  Belinda came out of the bedroom all dressed and then paused to grip the door frame as she was hit by another contraction.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Bazza rushed to her side and automatically took her hand. ‘I know the drill,’ he said. ‘Squeeze my hand as hard as you need. Looks like your contractions are already down to four or five minutes apart.’

  ‘How do you know this stuff?’ she asked.

  ‘I’ve got several sisters who’ve had several babies, and I was there for the start of one of the births because her husband was stuck at a conference up the coast. He made it there for the business end of things – so trust me, I don’t know that much. Just the hand-squeezing stuff at the beginning.’ He smiled at her. ‘Okay, you good to go?’

  ‘I think so,’ she replied. ‘My bag’s packed by the front door.’

  ‘Yeah, I noticed that,’ Shanks called out from the couch. ‘Bloody hazard. I tripped over it on my way in and then knocked over the lamp. That was before I got beaten up by a five-foot-nine, half-naked, pregnant woman – so don’t worry about me, guys, I’ll be fine.’

  Bazza ignored him, his eyes on Belinda as he picked up her bag and they headed to the front door.

  ‘At least pass me the TV remote!’ Shanks yelled after them. Belinda had to admit she did feel a bit guilty about her friend, but another contraction was clenching her stomach and she tightened her hand around Bazza’s as he helped her out into the hallway.

  ‘Sorry, Shanks, but I’ve really gotta go!’ she called back as the door shut behind her.

  Bazza drove like a rally-car driver. They were at the hospital within fifteen minutes, and she could have sworn it was at least a twenty-five-minute drive normally. As they pulled into the driveway, he commented quietly, ‘I have to say I’m not much of a fan of your mate Shanks, but I love his taste in cars – drives like a fricken dream!’

  He took her in through the front door, and they were practically bowled over by Stacey as she came rushing over. ‘About time! I’ve been waiting for you to get here for AGES! What took you so long? Where’s Aaron? He wouldn’t answer his phone when I tried to call. How far along are you? Have you been timing your contractions?’ She barely stopped to take a breath, and now turned to look at Bazza.

  ‘Who are you?’ she demanded sharply.

  ‘I’m Bazza. I live downstairs from Belinda,’ he replied, politely reaching out to shake Stacey’s hand.

  Her eyes narrowed as she looked back at him. ‘Downstairs, hey?’ she asked, her voice full of suspicion. ‘Well, thanks, Barry, but I can take it from here.’

  Bazza looked a little disappointed as he relinquished his grip on Belinda. ‘Right, yeah. I’ll get out of the way.’

  Belinda couldn’t help but feel a bit sad as the warm, strong hand she’d been holding was replaced by the cooler and more bony one belonging to Stacey. She knew it was crazy but she couldn’t seem to help herself. ‘Wait,’ she called out as Bazza started to walk away. ‘Maybe you could stay, I mean – if you want to – you did say you’ve done this before . . .’ She started to falter. What was she doing? Why on earth would he want to stay?

  ‘Belinda, are you delirious?’ Stacey stared at her in
shock.

  ‘Yes, quite possibly,’ she replied, her eyes on Bazza as she waited for his response.

  He paused for just a second and then stepped back in and took her other arm. ‘I’m here for you as long as you need me,’ he said firmly.

  At that exact moment, it felt as if someone had flicked on a fast-forward button. Everything became a blur as her labour progressed rapidly. Then there were the moments when the fast-forward would stop and things would move in slow-motion instead, and she would become excruciatingly aware of every little detail of what was going on.

  There was the moment when Bazza was holding the cool facewasher against her forehead and telling her that everything was going to be fine, that she was doing a fantastic job and to just hold on, and she burst into tears because he was being so wonderful, but he wasn’t Andy and she just felt so mixed up and crazy.

  There was the moment when a midwife told her quite snappily that she was going to have to have an epidural to get through this, and she cried because, God knows why, she had so wanted to do it without one. Stacey stood up for her, folding her arms and staring the midwife down until she backed off, her hands up in defeat. And then there was the moment, just a few minutes later, when she realised that this sort of pain was really quite unbearable and yes, she would have an epidural thank you very much, and can you go and get that midwife back in here RIGHT NOW! And then there was the moment, another few minutes after that, when Doctor Vashna appeared and said, ‘Whoops, it’s too late for an epidural now. Isn’t that ironic?’ And she thought, ‘My God, I am going to die!’

  And finally, there was the moment when they told her to push, and to keep pushing, and Stacey was right down there next to the doctor screaming out to her that she could see the head, and Bazza was holding her hand so tight and she realised that he looked like he might have been crying too – but maybe that was just because she was digging her fingernails into his hand – and then there was the sound of a baby crying, and they told her that the first one was a girl, and then Bazza said, ‘First one?’ but there was no time to hold her baby and there was no time to explain, because within minutes she was told to start pushing again, and exactly eight minutes after her first daughter was born, she had a second one.

  Two tiny baby girls.

  And now she was holding them both. And she was crying, and Stacey was crying, and Bazza was looking suspiciously red-eyed. And then Bazza murmured quietly as he looked down at her, ‘Thank God that text message woke me up.’

  ‘What text?’ she asked, keeping her eyes on her two little girls.

  ‘Nothing, really. It was just a wrong number or something. It’s just that if my phone hadn’t beeped at me first to wake me up, I probably wouldn’t have heard you yelling.’ He paused to move a strand of hair out of her eyes. ‘All that the message said was “You’re late.” Weird, hey?’

  Part Six

  Finding Solid Ground

  Chapter 18

  Evelyn

  Evelyn flew into the hospital, burst through the door of the birthing suite and then stopped to get her breath back before asking the room at large, ‘Where are my grandchildren?’

  ‘Hello, Evelyn.’ Belinda looked up at her from the bed. ‘They’re both right here.’

  Evelyn rushed forward to see the two tiny baby girls snuggled next to each other in one little hospital cot.

  ‘They seemed to be happier in together,’ Belinda explained.

  Evelyn gazed down at them. ‘This one looks just like Andy!’ she exclaimed, her eyes tearing up immediately. ‘Oh, Belinda, they’re just beautiful.’ She looked up then to see who else was in the room and had to do a double-take as her eyes fell upon Barry. ‘Bazza! What on earth are you doing here?’

  Belinda’s eyes widened. ‘You two know each other?’

  ‘Okay, hang on a sec, I only just realised myself recently . . . and I tried to tell you the other day,’ began Bazza, holding up his hands in defence.

  It took a bit of explaining, but eventually everyone understood who was connected to who and how. There was then an awkward moment when no one knew quite what to say. Bazza broke the silence by offering to get out of their way. He didn’t seem to know how to say goodbye and ended up giving Belinda a pat on the arm before rushing from the room, embarrassed.

  Once he was gone, Evelyn leant against Belinda’s bed and reached into the cot to stroke the babies’ soft skin gently. ‘I can’t believe that yesterday I didn’t even know that you were pregnant and now . . . here they are.’

  ‘Yes, well, you could hardly have expected me to phone you with the good news after what you said at the funeral, could you?’ Belinda snapped back defensively.

  Nothing could rile Evelyn today. She turned to look Belinda straight in the eyes. ‘I’m so sorry. What I did to you was awful. I completely understand why you didn’t phone me. I just hope you can forgive me for what I put you through. I should have contacted you to apologise much, much sooner than last night.’

  ‘Let’s call it even then?’ Belinda replied, her shoulders starting to relax. Then her eyes welled up and she swallowed a sob as she added, ‘But you were right, anyway. It was my fault he died. Even Andy thought so.’ She put her face in her hands, ‘And he couldn’t forgive me. The moment before he died, he was blaming me.’

  Evelyn turned to Stacey in confusion, but all she got was a shrug. They both leant forward to comfort Belinda. ‘What do you mean he blamed you? What are you talking about?’ Evelyn asked.

  ‘Just before he died, he sent me a text. All it said was “You’re late.” I was running late to pick him up from work, and if I hadn’t been he wouldn’t have gone down to that shop. He sent me that text to tell me it was my fault he died.’ Belinda cried even harder. ‘And now he’ll never get to meet his baby girls,’ she sobbed.

  ‘No,’ said Evelyn firmly. ‘I don’t buy it. That’s not Andrew; that’s not his style. That can’t be what he meant. I know my son – there’s no way he would use his final moments to put the blame on you.’

  ‘Well, what would he use his dying moments for?’ Stacey asked, frowning.

  ‘He’d use them to say something important,’ Evelyn replied, trying to figure it out.

  ‘He’d use them to tell you that you were pregnant.’ The voice came from the door. All three women looked up to see James standing there. None of them had noticed him come in. ‘You say the message was “You’re late”?’ James asked.

  Belinda nodded miserably.

  ‘He didn’t mean you were running late; he meant you were late. As in pregnant.’ James gave them a wry smile. ‘My brother the cryptic. I only just figured out what the message he sent me on Facebook meant. The day he died he wrote on my wall to say I might have to come back earlier than expected. Freaked me out when a day later I got the call from Mum saying I needed to come home because Andy had died. I started to wonder if the guy was psychic or something – you know, like he knew something terrible was about to happen. I realise now he was probably thinking you might want to get down the aisle sooner than planned before your belly got too big.’

  ‘Yes!’ Evelyn exclaimed, triumphant. ‘I knew it. I knew my son wouldn’t have wanted the blame put anywhere. It all makes sense now!’

  She was so caught up in the satisfaction of figuring it out that she forgot that she and James had barely been on speaking terms at home for the past few months. She supposed she still owed him an apology for refusing to include Belinda in their lives, but that could wait until later. From the look on Belinda’s face, she still wasn’t completely convinced by their big revelation.

  ‘Belinda!’ Stacey yelped, making one of the babies wriggle uncomfortably in her sleep. ‘That’s the same text that Barry got! You’re late. And it was the text that saved your life and got you to the hospital. It had to be Andy who sent it: he was trying to protect
you and, at the same time, let you know it was him looking out for you, by using those same final words.’ Stacey looked absolutely delighted with herself.

  Evelyn raised her eyebrows.

  ‘Stace, first of all, Bazza didn’t save my life. There was no intruder. It was your bloody boyfriend. And what? All of a sudden you believe in ghosts?’

  ‘When there’s no other explanation, yes, I do,’ Stacey replied.

  Evelyn stared back and forth from Belinda to Stacey. ‘I have absolutely no idea what you two are on about, but – I can’t stand it any longer! If you don’t let me hold one of these precious little creatures, I don’t know what I’m going to do.’

  Belinda smiled at Evelyn for what must have been the first time in a long time. ‘Help yourself; I’m sure they’d love a cuddle from their grandma.’

  Evelyn pounced on the one closest to her and scooped her out of the cot. ‘Do they have names yet?’ she asked, pressing the warm little bundle close to her chest and smiling at James as he stepped closer for a look. He avoided her eyes though, concentrating on the babies instead.

  ‘Nope,’ replied Belinda. ‘They’re still called Twin A and Twin B. I’m going to be completely honest and say I don’t have a clue what to call them.’ Twin A had opened up her eyes briefly and was darting them about through lovely, long eyelashes. Evelyn lost herself in those deep blue eyes.

  ‘Here,’ she said, eventually coming out of her trance and looking up at James. ‘Have a hold of your brand new niece.’ She passed the exquisite little package across to her son and then reached into the cot to pick up Twin B.

  The two little faces couldn’t be more different. At least the poor girl won’t have the same problem I did trying to tell them apart.

  Evelyn was again losing herself in her granddaughter’s eyes when James brought her out of her stupor. ‘Could I have a minute alone with Belinda?’ he asked, carefully placing Twin A back in the cot and indicating that Evelyn should do the same with Twin B.